Space, The Final Frontier for Homosexuality

There have been openly gay television actors and characters, there have been openly gay (retired) NFL football players, there has even been an openly gay US Republican Member of Congress, but there has never been an openly gay astronaut, active or retired.

With over 450 people having flown into space, odds are there has been at least one gay person in space already, but the conservative nature of NASA and the military heritage of many of the astronauts may combine to make it difficult for astronauts to be open about their sexual orientation. Add to that that US astronauts all live and train in Texas, where sodomy laws remained on the books until 2003 (when a Supreme Court ruling forced Texas to take them out), and you can begin to get a sense of the atmosphere. The atmosphere in Russia has not been much better.

There have been some recent victories however for gay people who love space. Former ‘N Sync singer and commercial astronaut hopeful Lance Bass came out on the cover of People magazine in 2006 and George Takei, the actor who played the beloved Lieutenant Sulu on Star Trek, came out of the closet in 2005. Takei has become a major spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign and embarked on a nationwide speaking tour he called, "Equality Trek."

Of NASA’s 10 field centers, Ames and JPL in California, and Goddard in Maryland already have groups at their centers to support gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees. NASA Ames also hosted George Takei in a special event on October 11, 2007 for National Coming Out Day. But the space community at large, still has a long way to go.

There are groups in the scientific and engineering communities for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, the largest is NOGLSTP (National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals). There are also groups of gay astronomers and gay geoscientists (gAyGU, a play on the geoscience organization AGU). Space scientists, engineers and astronauts don’t have their own organization yet, or for that matter many role models, but things are changing.

In 1991 1990, Todd B. Hawley, visionary co-founder of the International Space University, boldly disclosed he was gay in response to a flurry of rumors. He ultimately left ISU and died in 1995 from complications due to AIDS but his courage and his commitment to space still touches the people who knew him.

James Pollack, a famous atmospheric scientist who worked with Carl Sagan and spent most of his career at NASA Ames, was also gay. It is discussed in the book "Carl Sagan: A Life" by Keay Davidson, 2000. Pollack died of spine cancer in 1994.

If you are gay and you love space you are certainly not alone (US census data shows that at least 1 percent of the population is gay identifying and with the tens of thousands of people working in space that means there are a lot of gay people in the space community).

More importantly, if we work hard now, homophobia could be one of those things we don’t have to take into space with us.

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